This invention relates to a printing method and apparatus and a printing system including the printing apparatus and, more particularly, to a printing method and apparatus which print an image on a recording medium by using a full-line printhead having a printing width equivalent to the width of the recording medium, and a printing system including the printing apparatus.
Vending machines for the sale of seals or the like on which images obtained by synthesizing photographic images of the faces of customers with digital images are printed have recently been known. In the vending machines for the sale of such printed images, the added values of printed images to be sold increase if color illustrations and characters are printed together. Demands have arisen for the use of such printed images as personal cards for casual use and techniques of printing the names of customers on color seals. The printing apparatus used in such a vending machine is required to print color images to increase the added value of printed matter and print images at high speed to handle requests from many customers.
Conventional page printers including the above printing apparatus bitmap all data, corresponding to one page of printing paper, sent from a host computer (to be referred to as a host hereinafter), into a print buffer, and print an image. In this case, even when a plurality of identical patterns are to be printed on one sheet, all the pattern data have to be transmitted from the host or the pattern data are pre-registered in a memory in the printer, and the pattern data are bitmapped in a plurality of areas in the print buffer in accordance with a command from the host. The method of bitmapping the pattern data pre-registered in the memory into the print buffer in accordance with a command from the host, and printing out on the sheet has been often used to shorten the time required for bitmapping the data received from the host.
In the above vending machine, when a photographic image of the face of a customer, the name of the customer, an image, an illustration, and the like are to be printed in color, the name and the like inputted by the customer are synthesized with the image, the illustration, and the like to generate print image data. In this case, as described above, the print data corresponding to one page (one entire sheet) is sent from the host (main control unit) of the vending machine to the printing apparatus. The printing apparatus then analyzes the received print data and prints the corresponding images on one printing paper sheet. Such color image data is generally constituted by a plurality of color component data such as yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) component data. For example, a printing apparatus having four printheads for printing Y, M, C, and K (black) color images requires image data four times larger in amount than that required to print a black-and-white (or monochrome) image.
If all such color image data corresponding to one page are bitmapped into bit image data by the host and transmitted therefrom to the printing apparatus, a much longer time is required for the host to bitmap data into image data and transmit the data to the printing apparatus. As a result, a much longer time is required to print images on one sheet. This makes customers wait for a longer period of time, and decreases the processing performance needed to satisfy requirements from customers.
In addition, according to the above conventional pattern bitmapping, when a plurality of identical patterns are to be printed on a plurality of recording media, the printout time can be effectively shortened. When, however, a plurality of identical patterns are to be consecutively printed on one recording medium, the printout time is not shortened so much.
Furthermore, in the above conventional pattern bitmapping, a large amount of data must be transmitted from the host or another storage medium is required to store pattern data. The following problems are therefore posed.
When all the data corresponding to one page of printing paper are to be sent from the host, it takes time to transfer the data as described above. The efficiency of bitmapping data into the buffer greatly deteriorates. For this reason, the period of time between the start of data transfer and the start of printout operation (to be referred to as xe2x80x9cthe first page print timexe2x80x9d hereinafter) becomes very long.
When pattern data are pre-registered in a storage medium such as a memory card, and the patterns are bitmapped into a plurality of areas in the print buffer in accordance with a command from the host, the storage medium must be incorporated in the printer or at least an interface for connecting the storage medium to the printer is required. This greatly increases the cost of the printer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing method and apparatus capable of increasing the printing speed, and a printing system including the printing apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a printing method and apparatus which shorten the time required for image processing in a data source and reduce the amount of data transmitted to the printing apparatus so as to shorten the time required to print image data, and a printing system including the printing apparatus.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a printing method and apparatus in which basic image data is registered in the printing apparatus in advance, and a desired image can be printed by only designating the printing position of the image data on a recording medium, and a printing system including the printing apparatus.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a printing apparatus for printing an image on a recording medium by using a printhead, comprising: a memory storing image data sent from a data source, and copied image data for an image print; storing means for the image data which has been sent from the data source; copying means for copying the image data stored in the memory to an address in the memory corresponding to a printing position in accordance with information of the printing position on the recording medium which is designated by the data source; and printing means for outputting the copied image data by the copying means in the memory to the printhead, and printing the image.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a printing method of printing an image on a recording medium by using a printhead, comprising the steps of: storing image data sent from a data source in a memory; copying the image data stored in the memory to an address in the memory which corresponds to a printing position on the recording medium in accordance with information of the printing position which is designated by the data source; and outputting the copied image data in the memory in the copying step to the printhead, and printing the image.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, the foregoing object is attained by providing a printing system including the above-described printing apparatus, wherein the data source comprises transmission means for transmitting designated image data to the printing apparatus; and position transmission means for transmitting position information designating a printing position of image data on a recording medium to the printing apparatus.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus and method which can print at high speed by improving data bitmapping efficiency even when identical patterns are to be repeatedly printed on the same page of a recording medium.
In order to attain the foregoing object, the above apparatus further comprises input means for inputting the image data and a printing command for the image data, wherein the memory includes a first memory area used for storing the image data and a second memory area used for storing the copied image data to be printed on a recording medium, the storing means stores the image data in the first memory area on the basis of the printing command inputted by the input means, and the copying means copies the image data stored in the first memory area into the second memory area on the basis of the printing command inputted by the input means, and preferably further comprises control means for controlling to concurrently execute a copy operation performed by the copying means and a storing operation performed by the storing means.
It is preferable in the above-apparatus that the storing means includes registration means for registering image data inputted by the input means as image data to be repeatedly used, and the control means controls to execute the copy operations by the copying means concurrently with a registration operation by the registration means and a storing operation by the storing means performed when image data different from the image data used for the copy operation is inputted.
The printing means preferably prints on the basis of the image data stored in the second memory area.
If the image data is color image data, the data includes yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) components. In this case, the printing means includes storage areas, in each of the first and second memory areas, which correspond to the yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) components.
The printing means preferably prints using a full-line printhead having a printing width equal to the width of the recording medium. The printhead is an inkjet printhead for printing by discharging ink. Preferably, the printhead is a printhead for discharging ink by using heat energy and comprises an electrothermal transducer for generating heat energy to be applied to the ink.
The storing means preferably comprises a table for managing a storage address in the first memory area, for each pattern image expressed by the image data, and horizontal and vertical sizes of the pattern image.
The printing command includes a registration command for giving an instruction to store and register the image data in the first memory area, and a copy command for giving an instruction to bitmap/copy the image data registered in the first memory area into the second memory area. The control means executes a copy command for registered image data, and at the same time, executes a registration command for newly input image data.
Further, in order to attain the foregoing object, the above method further comprises the step of inputting the image data and a printing command for the image data, wherein the memory includes a first memory area used for storing the image data, and a second memory area for storing the copied image data which is to be printed on a recording medium, the image data is stored into the first memory area on the basis of the inputted printing command, and the stored image data in the first memory area is copied into the second memory area on the basis of the inputted printing command, and preferably further comprises the step of controlling to concurrently execute a copy operation performed in the copying step and a storing operation performed in the storing step.
The printing step preferably prints on the basis of the image data stored in the second memory area.
In accordance with the above further specified construction, the memory including the first memory area used for storing image data and the second memory area used for storing the image data to be printed on the recording medium is used, image data and a printing command for the image data are input, the input image data is stored in the first memory area, and the image data stored in the first memory area is copied into the second memory area on the basis of the input printing command. Control is performed to concurrently execute the copy operation and storing operation to be performed when image data different from the image data used for the copy operation is input.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive printing apparatus and method which can print at high speed by improving data bitmapping efficiency even when identical patterns are to be repeatedly printed on the same page of a recording medium.
In order to attain the foregoing object, the above printing apparatus further comprises input means for inputting the image data and a printing command for the image data, wherein the memory comprises a print buffer having a plurality of areas for performing printing on the recording medium, the storing means stores the inputted image data into one of the plurality of areas of the print buffer on the basis of the inputted printing command, and the copying means copies the stored image data into another area of the print buffer on the basis of the inputted printing command.
The printing means preferably prints on the basis of the copied image data.
The apparatus may further comprise registration means for registering the inputted image data and buffer releasing means for canceling registration of the registered image data, and clearing contents of the area of the print buffer in which the registered image data is stored.
The operation performed by the buffer releasing means may be started in response to a printing operation start command for the printing means.
Alternatively, the operation performed by the buffer releasing means may be started in response to a buffer release command inputted by the input means. In this case, the print buffer release command is preferably executed after printing on a plurality of pages of the recording medium is completed.
Preferably, the number of areas of the print buffer is at least three.
The registration means preferably assigns one of the plurality of areas of the print buffer as an area for storing the registered image data. In addition, the registration means preferably comprises a table for managing a storage address in one of the plurality of areas of the print buffer, for each pattern image expressed by the image data, and horizontal and vertical sizes of the pattern image.
Further in order to attain the foregoing object, the above method further comprises the step of inputting the image data and a printing command for the image data, wherein the memory comprises a print buffer having a plurality of areas for storing image data for printing on the recording medium, the image data is stored into one of the plurality of areas of the print buffer on the basis of the inputted printing command, and the stored image data is copied into another area of the print buffer on the basis of the inputted printing command.
In accordance with the above further specified construction, when printing using a print buffer having a plurality of areas for storing image data, image data and a printing command for the image data are input. The input image data is stored in one of the plurality of areas of the print buffer on the basis of the input printing command. The stored image data is copied to another area of the print buffer on the basis of the input printing command, and the copied image data is used to print.
The invention is particularly advantageous since printing speed can be increased by inputting basic image data and information of the printing position of the image data on a recording medium from the data source, pre-storing them, bitmapping designated image data at the printing position in a memory, and printing out the image.
In addition, the time required for image processing in the data source can be shortened, and the amount of data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus is reduced, thereby shortening the time required to print image data.
Furthermore, basic image data is registered in the printing apparatus in advance, and a desired image can be printed by only designating the printing position of the image data on the recording medium.
According to the present invention, even when a plurality of identical patterns are to be printed on one page of a recording medium, all the data need not be input and bitmapped. Since required data can be obtained by only copying/bitmapping and transferring image data between buffers, the data bitmapping efficiency further improves. As a result, the total printing speed can be further increased. This shortens the time the user of the apparatus must wait before a printout is obtained, and increases the maximum number of printing paper sheets that can be printed per unit time.
Moreover, since one of the print buffers is used to store image data as a copy source, no special apparatus arrangement is required. The data bitmapping efficiency can therefore be improved at low cost.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.